


Her Touch on My Skin

by Afeni



Series: She and I [3]
Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII Remake (Video Game 2020)
Genre: Angst, Bathrooms, F/F, Fluff and Angst, Girls Kissing, Kissing, Nipples, Romance, Yuri
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-28
Updated: 2021-01-28
Packaged: 2021-03-14 12:48:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,908
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29046399
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Afeni/pseuds/Afeni
Summary: The Sector 7 has fallen; many have lost their lives and the Turks have taken Aerith. However, Tifa has survived and is now in the bathroom of Aerith’s home gathering herself after everything that happened.
Relationships: Aerith Gainsborough/Tifa Lockhart
Series: She and I [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2124063
Comments: 2
Kudos: 18





	Her Touch on My Skin

**Author's Note:**

  * A translation of [Hän kosketti minua](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/750681) by Afeni. 



> I wrote this fic in spring 2020 after playing Remake. The original story is in Finnish, but I wanted to translate it for wider audience. This is part 3 of my She and I series.
> 
> If you’re a Finn, I highly recommend that you should read the original story.

I leaned my head against the tile wall and let the water drain over me. I did not even remember the last time I had been in such a luxurious bathroom. It was incomprehensible that someone lived so comfortably, owned such a house and a magnificent bathroom in the slums. I still could not enjoy it.

The water drained and drained but wiped away only the top layer of dirt. Even if I had rubbed my skin on the flesh, I would no longer have cleansed. The shampoo foaming in my hair could not wash my insides. Could not restore my innocence.

If I had never joined the Avalanche… If I had not fought the Shinra… If I had resisted the bombs more fiercely… If I had done something different, would the outcome have changed? Would the top level of the Sector 7 still be up?

It did not matter what Barred said, we had provoked Shinra. Because of us, the company had dropped the top level of the entire Sector 7, and hundreds - if not thousands - had lost their lives because of our actions. Maybe we really were terrorists as people said. We fought evil by any means, but right now I was not at all sure it was the right solution.

I guess I got my hair washed. I think. I pressed my back against the cold tiles again and poured down the wall. Lower. On the floor. It was cold too. And a slippery with the shampoo. My feet slipped and finally slammed against the floor. I did not feel lifting it, but I pressed my nose to my other knee. My whole body trembled as tears mingled with the water flowing over me.

Why did I survive but Jessie did not? I had no greater right to live than she has had. I had similarly participated in Avalanche operations, fighting for a better tomorrow just to wake up to an even gloomier day.

I could hardly breath. My nose was so clogged that I could no longer get air properly through it. I just wanted to get away. Go back to the past. Get stuck in moments that did not hurt so much. Moments when I had believed I was a good person.

Something warm touched my shoulder. I shuddered and looked up. The hand reached out to me as the green eyes looked down at me. The water flowed directly over Aerith, watering her hair, and making it hang on both sides of her head in the same way as mine.

I grabbed my outstretched hand and let Aerith jerk me up. I could not help but stare as the water slid down her neck onto the chest of the dress and from there towards the hems. She had taken off her jacket but not her dress. The bra was drawn against the wet pink fabric.

I swallowed and looked up.

"Aerith, are you really here?"

I heard a cry in my own voice. A finger pressed against my lips and closed my mouth from more questions. It was warm, wet, and real. The fingertip was rougher than I could have imagined. In my mind, Aerith's hands were soft.

A hand slid on my cheek and stroked it. Fingers swept the corner of my eye, but the water immediately replaced the tears and dripped from my lashes onto Aerith’s nails.

“The Turks… they took you,” I said.

"Shh, I'm here now. Did Marlene get to Elmyra's care?”

I nodded. Elmyra had fed, washed, and put the girl to sleep. Assured of security in the middle of all the chaos.

“Good,” Aerith said.

I grabbed Aerith's wrist. That, too, was solid and real, but how could she be here. The Turks took her to Shinra's headquarters. We saw Aerith with Tseng, and even Elmyra knew about the situation.

“Your dress…”

The words escaped my lips, though a thousand other questions crossed my mind. Aerith looked down and laughed. Her hips swayed, and the dress glued to her thighs.

"Oops."

Now I saw her the nipples and bra's lace patterns against the thin dress. There was something very fragile about the Aerith, and the lace bra did not diminish the impression. I never had looked at any woman that way, but right now I could not take my eyes off Aerith. While my chest was still squeezing, something warm was pouring down my stomach. A wave of conflict swept over me like water bubbling from a shower.

“At least I got you thinking of happier thoughts,” Aerith continued with laughter in her voice. She grabbed the top button of her dress and plucked it open.

I pressed the shower off, and suddenly I was more aware of myself than ever since my teens. While the warm steam still hovered in the bathroom, my skin rose to the goosebumps.

Aerith's gaze ran along my body as she unbuttoned her dress. We could not have been more different. She had the kind of feminine charm I could not ever achieve. The charm that matched with lace lingerie perfectly.

I felt my hand along the wall until I reached for the towel and took it off the hanger. I wrapped it around myself at the same moment as Aerith’s dress fell to the floor.

“Wait, I’ll give you a towel,” I said, and I was already taking another one, but Aerith grabbed my wrist again and stopped me in the middle of the movement.

“It’s a big towel, we can both fit in,” she said.

Aerith's feet slapped against the tiles, and only now did I realize she did not have any shoes or socks. As she pushed closer, I smelled the scent of the flowers. Not the kind of industrial sold in upper levels in bottles, but the real, sweet scent that you could not smell anywhere in Midgar but within her - and perhaps in the garden that surrounds this house.

Her fingers let go of my wrist and grabbed the towel. Aerith pulled it open and pressed herself against me. Somehow, she got a towel wrapped behind her back and pushed the other end into my hand. I squeezed the soft fabric as if it had been my last fixed point in the world.

Aerith was wet and warm. The lace rubbed roughly against my breasts, and I could not stop my nipples from reacting to it. Her hands slammed into my flanks but continued their journey and curled to the side of my back. The green eyes captured my gaze once more, and I no longer knew if I could breathe. Maybe I was drowning. In my sadness. To my anxiety. And to this feeling that I guess I should not have even experienced with Aerith. However, it was the most authentic and warmest thing that had awakened in me for a moment.

“You just have to believe. We can still reverse the direction of the future,” Aerith whispered, and her lips touched my chin.

“So many… died tonight,” I replied.

“It wasn’t your fault. Shinra made their own decisions and headed for the same direction as before,” Aerith said. “We can change this. I want to believe so. We can create a better world.”

I nodded at every word. Aerith said what I needed to hear right now. She was present and warm, right on my bare skin. Drops of water dripped from her lashes to the high cheekbones like tears, but the greenery of the irises sparkled with joy.

"Tifa?" Aerith said. Suddenly her voice was hoarse.

"Yes?"

“When it all started, I thought I wouldn’t give myself permission this time… That I would stick to the boundaries… I would keep my heart untouchable…”

I took a breath. I was not quite sure what beginning Aerith was talking about, but I did not dare interrupt her. Maybe she meant the moment we met in the Sector 8. On the other hand, she spoke of ‘this time’ as if there had been another time, but perhaps she could not phrase her thoughts correctly. Did not literally mean what she said.

“But the heart is fierce and doesn’t listen to me,” Aerith continued, “so I thought that if I followed it now, maybe in the future everything would be different. If my heart is on a different path now than it was last time, other things may change too.”

I finally understood. Aerith must have meant the Soldier, whom she had once known. The one she must have fallen in love with when she was younger. But where did her heart guide her now? She could not mean…

I opened my mouth, but there were no words. My heart pounded against my chest and almost blocked my breathing. We had only known each other for a moment, but I felt like I had found an old friend. Someone who knew exactly how I thought.

When lips touched mine, I knew I was wrong. Aerith was not my friend. Maybe at some other moment she might have been, but right now my heart was beating in a way it had not beaten before. A friend could not make my breath accelerate, not my ears ring and my toes tingle.

I did not know if I was crying or laughing as I wrapped my arms around Aerith. The towel slipped on the wet floor, but I did not care. Aerith’s hair tangled in my fingers, and her fingers wandered along my back. Her lips were honey strawberry mousse, just as soft and seductive. The kiss pampered my mouth with the heat that filled me throughout. There was no bad feelings or remorse in that moment. Just life and desire, desire to live.

“Aerith, when this is all over…” I whispered against Aerith’s lips.

Aerith pulled away and pressed her index finger against my lips. There was something going on in her eyes that I did not get a grip on.

“The future is a hidden path that we have yet to find,” Aerith said. "Before that… can we be in the present?"

A finger moved from my lips and brushed my cheek. I was amazed at its roughness again because everything else in the Aerith was so soft. However, I nodded at her words. It was better not to live in the past or the future, for everything was in the present.

Aerith’s hand slid across my face to the hair rest. She pressed my head closer to her and sucked my lower lip between hers. I surrendered and let my thoughts fly away. She was warm and wet against my body and I did not need anything else now. Just this one lap to drown.

Just as my tongue merged with Aerith’s, a rumble penetrated my consciousness. I shuddered so that my back struck the wall tiles.

“Tifa? Is everything okay?" Barret's voice bore behind the door.

"Yeah, I'll be right back!" I answered and turned my gaze from the door to Aerith. Her eyes twinkled as she smiled.

"Can you keep the secret?" she asked.

I did not have time to answer. I stood alone in the still steaming bathroom. I clasped my hand into a fist and pressed against my chest as if I had captured our secret and held it in my grip.

Aerith was not here. I was not sure if she had ever been, but I knew she had touched me. 


End file.
